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Becca is a schoolteacher and blogs at homeiswheremystorybegins.com. She loves to cook, bake, garden, sew, quilt, teach and simply spend time with her family. She strives to find art in everyday things.

These 4th of July Pattern Kabobs are fun to make and eat, plus get kids practicing math with a simple patterning activity.

We started off by making a boxed pound cake. You could certainly make your pound cake from scratch, but we were going for quick and easy with this activity. Once the pound cake was cooked and cooled, we cut it up into square chunks.

My kids and I decided on a pattern for the kabobs. We went with red, white, blue, blue, repeating the pattern twice per skewer. Be careful with young children! Some skewers can be VERY sharp.

When we finished making our pattern kabobs, we whipped up a bit of cream and the kids put a little dollup on each berry or piece of cake. It was the perfect summertime treat for the 4th of July, and I know my kids will be asking to make these again! I’m telling you, kids love eating anything on a stick!

Mathematical tips

If you have younger children at home, repeat this pattern verbally many times. Try naming this pattern with letters. For example, instead of saying red, white, blue, blue, say ABCC ABCC. In my kindergarten and first grade classrooms, we use letter names to help identify example patterns. When my students are working on patterning I will ask them to show me an ABC pattern or an ABB pattern. Having familiarity with this concept is certainly helpful. Working on patterns will help your child build a foundation in algebraic thinking. The work that begins with pretty colors and designs leads to skip counting, repeated addition (ex: 3+3+3+3), and eventually into multiplication and division.

I always suggest kids work from left to right when creating their patterns. Keeping the same directionality as they see in reading and writing just makes sense for young learners.

Have fun creating this yummy 4th of July treat, and you don’t even have to tell them it’s math!